


The Notes

by Neko_Crimson



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fluff, I should be working on my multichapter WIP but here I am posting drabbles, Lowkey mentions of other ships. If you squint. Kinda maybe., Not Canon Compliant, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-07 22:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10371141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neko_Crimson/pseuds/Neko_Crimson
Summary: One by one, Adrien's classmates discover that he has been anonymously leaving Marinette love letters, calling himself her secret admirer. Most of them have some kind of advice to give to him...





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a few-sentences drabble written by @ladybugsofmiracles on tumblr. (http://ladybugsofmiracles.tumblr.com/post/158498999433/if-my-secret-admirer-doesnt-step-out-right-now)  
> I don't think you'll need to read it first to understand what's going on, but it might help if you get confused.
> 
> After I wrote this, I got permission from them to post it here. Enjoy!

That obviously hadn’t been what Marinette was expecting. She was trying to keep her expression stern, but her face was quickly flushing to a scarlet hue that could’ve competed with Ladybug’s suit. The line that her lips were in was starting to quiver. But her eyes, she kept glued on to Adrien’s face.

He couldn’t really feel anything, but he knew that he was sweating.

—

Adrien remembers when he wrote the first letter. He’d developed a crush on Marinette over time, and prompting from Plagg had convinced him to pursue that. At first, it didn’t seem so bad. It was small, and cute; typed and printed, so that she wouldn’t try to read his hand-writing, he had a note with a flirtatious message on it.

_~ Your Secret Admirer_

He almost wanted to put a little paw print at the end of the signature. It’d be easier to deal with this as Chat Noir if his plan went awry. Marinette was no longer awkward around Adrien, but she praised his superhero identity so heavily, that had to mean _something,_ didn’t it? He decided against it, though. Especially when Plagg told him not to.

He’d stopped questioning why Plagg was pushing him so heavily by the third note.

—

Nino didn’t hear about any of it until after the sixth. He teased Adrien a little bit - about how _the tables have turned_  or some such like that, he doesn’t remember, really - and then commented that he thought the two of them would look cute together.

“But you’ve gotta be more creative than this, bro,” he added. “This is Marinette we’re talking about here. She’d appreciate something a bit more thought out than pick-up lines. Something that’s actually about her, that couldn’t be used on someone else, right?”

Adrien started making the notes resemble anonymous compliments and praise after that.

—

Mylène found out when Adrien was trying to come up with the tenth. She suggested he slow down a little bit. Ten, within two weeks? Was he _trying_ to get caught?

She interpreted Adrien’s lack of response as “I don’t know,” and told him to try limiting himself to one every three days. That way he didn’t run out of inspiration so quickly, and it might even be something she would look forward to when she recognized the pattern, instead of… Well, anything else that could happen.

Ivan stopped him from leaving the next day and suggested trying something more artful. Adrien started trying to write poems.

—

When Adrien accidentally dropped his notebook a few days later, Alix picked it up for him. She wasn’t normally the kind of person to snoop, but when she saw it, she wanted to know what on Earth could make him write something so long, especially if he could type it at home instead.

She told him it was too big.

Adrien wasn’t sure at the time if she even knew what it was or who it was for, with such a simple and blunt comment. She walked away pretty much immediately after, so he never got to ask.

He did end up writing his poems shorter from that day, though.

—

Chloé walked into class about a week later, ridiculing the whole thing.

“I can’t believe someone has a crush on _you,_ Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said right to her face.

“Well, obviously. It couldn’t be you.”

“What- you,” Chloé started. “See! This is why anyone who would write letters to _you_ has to be out of their mind! They weren’t even cute!”

Sabrina stood behind her, supporting (or rather, obeying) her friend, but otherwise trying to hide the disagreement on her face.

Adrien decided he didn’t _want_ Chloé’s support, and that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to let Sabrina find out, either.

—

When Kim and Max found out, it was because they went to the same cafe during lunch as Adrien and Nino; Kim overheard Adrien as he and Max passed them when walking back to school.

Kim mostly just teased. Max, on the other hand, had a new suggestion for Adrien once he understood what was going on.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to give her a way to respond?”

Adrien blinked, trying to search his brain for a response that appropriately said he wasn’t ready for that, yet. But he couldn’t come up with anything, instead opening and closing his mouth uselessly.

Kim chuckled and started walking away, shouting “good luck!” over his shoulder, and Max followed, shaking his head at the other two boys. Nino elbowed Adrien in the ribs, drawing his attention back into the real world.

—

Nathaniel saw Adrien put the letter in Marinette’s locker, one day. Neither of them said anything, even as Adrien walked away from the locker before anyone else saw.

Nathaniel saw the look on Adrien’s face, and Adrien saw his. Neither of them were ready to challenge the other.

—

Rose seemed very excited, when she and Juleka caught him. Both of them encouraged him before peacefully going on their way.

—

The morning when Adrien finally decided to ask for a response, he texted Alya to distract Marinette before they made it to the classroom, and put the note directly on her desk, along with one single rose. ( _Woah, he was smooth,_ he thought when he was planning everything. Now, with the entire room’s eyes on him, he wasn’t so sure.) Everyone else except Chloé, Sabrina, and Lila already knew it was him by that point, anyway; he wanted to believe this is when Alya first found out, as well, but most likely she’d already heard from Nino.

The three girls schooled their expressions just in time for Marinette, followed by Alya, to walk into the classroom.

All eyes were on Marinette as she supressed a gasp and picked up the piece of paper, unfolding it delicately to read it. Adrien started fidgeting with the lower hem of his jacket when he noticed her eyes were narrowed, brows furrowed.

She not-so-lightly slammed the paper back onto the desk and crossed her arms, looking around the room.

“Who is it!?” she demanded.

Alya snuck her hand out to grab the note, scanning it as Marinette silently challenged everyone in the room. When Alya sharply inhaled and put the note back on the desk, face down this time, Adrien knew that somehow he’d screwed up.

“If my secret admirer doesn’t step out right now, I’m going to toss you all in the Seine and deny you macarons for life!”

Now Adrien knew that he was _really_ screwed. Everyone knew that the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie was the best bakery in all of Paris, and Marinette could be quite tenacious when she was serious.

Like clockwork, everybody pointed at him. Well, everyone except Alya. Marinette stared at him, as if studying his features, and Alya joined her.

“Uh, surprise?” he managed, nervously smiling scratching the back of his neck.

Eventually - what had to be five minutes at most, but felt like five years to Adrien, she sighed, gave up, and sat down without a word. Alya pulled out her phone, and her fingers flew across the screen faster than Adrien had ever seen. Marinette’s phone vibrated only seconds later, and Adrien knew he wasn’t going to get any kind of response before class.

—

During classes that day, there were a lot more interruptions than normal. Whispers and murmurs. Throughout the day, he felt like he was being stared at.

—

When lunch period rolled around, Adrien was glad that it was Wednesday; he definitely didn’t feel like spending the rest of the day at school. Even so, he found himself collecting his stuff much more slowly than usual. Maybe it was because he suddenly felt a little cold. Most of the students left before him. Some of them gave Adrien sympathetic or pitying glances as they passed through the door; the rest of them avoiding even looking in his direction.

He heard a scribbling sound behind him, and a piece of paper, neatly folded, was placed on his desk. He looked up, and Marinette and Alya were walking out the door. Marinette was holding the flower against her chest, and the cold that Adrien felt was replaced with a feeling of emptiness.

—

Nino patted Adrien on the shoulder when they parted on the school steps.

—

In the backseat of the car, Adrien pulled the piece of paper from his pocket. He opened it, and…

In red ink, Marinette had circled where Adrien accidentally drew his signature Chat Noir paw print.

—

He didn’t get any kind of message from Marinette, or Alya, for the rest of the day.

By time the sun was going down, he was already considering skipping patrol.

—

“I messed up,” he confessed. Ladybug turned from where she’d landed, a little bit ahead of him.

“What do you mean, Chat?”

This is _really_  not how he wanted patrol to go. Looking away from Ladybug’s confused face, he sighed and continued. “I accidentally told someone my identity…” He closed his eyes, expecting some kind of backlash.

“I already know,” she said instead. “Thanks for the flower, though.”

He opened his eyes to see her smile at him - not completely happy, but definitely some of that, too, in her eyes - before she turned around and walked away.

A beat passed without response.

Two. Three, and then,

 _Oh,_ he thought. _Of course. That makes sense._


End file.
